After two decades, that’s enough The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October 16, 1996 - A7 Repap sale now imminent AFTER TWO decades of building up Repap, George Petty now wants out. The company, whose op- erations include the Watson Island pulp mill near Prince Rupert, a sawmill here in Terrace and sawmills at Carnaby and Smithers to the east, is officially on the auc- tion black. Interested parties were touring -Repap’s northwest operations last week as part of an overall effort to merge the company with another enterprise or to sell it out- right. Indications something was ‘up bave been forthcoming for several years but gained momentum earlier this year when shaky financial results were tied to news Repap (that? S paper spelled back- ward) had. hired two. com- panies to search for “strategic opportunities.” Although Repap has been investing. heavily in new ‘technology and specializing in buying older operations ‘and then tuming them around, that’s cost money. And it’s money that has had to be borrowed to the point there’s now a sizable George Petty debt. Coupled with the tend of the 90s to massive corpora- tions which can achieve economies of scale on a world wide basis, Repap’s days as an independent powered by one man were numbered. **He’s 63 years old,’’ said Repap spokesman Daniel Veniez of Petty last week, **He’s devoted the last two decades of his life to this business. Now he wants more time with his family.’’ Veniez said Repap’s board of directors wants to sell the entire enterprise as a pack- age, saying that's the best way for shareholders {0 receive full value. “Our strength, and we’ve said this all along, has been our investments and our people. The whole is better than the sum of the parts,” he added. Although Veniez con- ceded Repap’s debt load of several billions of dollars is a prime motivating factor behind the decision to sell, he said Petty’s game plan of borrowing the money for improvements has placed the company in a good pasi- tion. “You have to keep that in perspective. You didn’t pet the modem mill in Terrace and the other mills and $175 million in improvements (to the Watson Island pulp mill) without borrowing money,” said Veniez. ‘In B.C. that’s meant jobs and economic security and iVll mean that for years to come. George Petty has to deserve credit for that.”’ The company has other substantial operations in Wisconsin, in Manitoba and in New Brunswick where it spent millions on new pulp and paper technology. Veniez said Repap’s board wants to be in a position to make an announcement about the company’s future by the end of the year. “The board isn’t con- templating selling off parts of the company. There is strong value for the business of the whole,’ he con- tinued. Ironically, the news of visits to the northwest by in- terested companies comes at the 10th anniversary of Repap’s purchase of an old sawmill here in Terrace. That plant is now gone and on its site sits the new operation opencd by the company in 1988, Veniez declined to say how many buyers were in- terested in the company or how many there were, But he did say they represented major forestry companies. kkkkk Repap’s purchase this summer for $25 million of Orenda Forest Products made its northwest opera- tions more altractive. The company had been in- City strata decision attacked By JEFF NAGEL CITY COUNCIL is averrid- ing its own policy and the objections of the city plan- -Ner to approve the conver- sion of eight rental apart- nents to strata-title condos, And affordable housing advocates are calling the de- cision a. short-sighted sell- off of more of the city’s rental apartments. Ray. and Trudy Lovstad asked for the conversion to enable them to sell the eight two-bedroom Victoria Court apartments at the corer of Eby St. and Walsh Ave. City). planner — David Trawin opposed the request on the basis that the city’s vacancy rate remains at a low 1.7 per cent — well un- der the five per cent that a city policy states the vacan- cy. rate should be at before Strata title conversions are approved. The Lovstads say they want to sell the units only to some of the tenants who have. expressed interest in buying — and that tenants who. don’t buy won't have their homes sold ovt from under them. _The possibility was also raised that the Lovstads might use proceeds of the Sale to: erect a new apart- ment building on the ad- jacent property, adding more rental units to the local market. Trawin argued the conver- sion still means the apart- ments can be taken out of the already. stretched rental apartment market. And he said two-bedroom apartments are in particular- ly short supply, Trawin noted that almost all of the new four-plexes, six-plexes and apartments built ‘this year are being built. as strata-title com- plexes with the units for sale David Trawin as condos — not for rent as apartments, But councillor ~—- Rich McDaniel, at last week’s planning committee meet- ing, said he talked to one lo- cal realty firm and found out that most of the 65 strata- tite apartments they had sold in the last year have been to investors seeking in- come properties. Only five were sold to people who plan to live in them, he said, adding that means the rest are effective- ly still part of the apartment rental market — just under different ownership, ‘Are we getting into the business of saying how many rental units there should be in town,’’ asked mayor Jack Talstra, Councillor David Hull agreed with McDaniel and Talstra, saying he some- times finds the vacancy rate stats for Terrace hard to be- lieve given the number of for rent ads in the papers each week, “T don’t think we can dic- tate the mix of strata to rent- al units in the market,’’ he added. Helga Kenny of the Ter- race Housing Registry told planning committee mem- bers last Thursday she’s shocked that councillors don’t believe there’s a hous- ing crisis ia the city. **People can’t move here because they can’t find a home to rent even though they have a job,’’ Kenny told council members. She said the registry maintains a list of people looking for homes and 89 families are looking right now. ‘*Some are camping, some are living with friends, Some are living in cars, Some are doing whatever they can,’’ she said. “Check out the motels along Hwy 16 West — there are plenty of people there who'd rather be living in homes.”’ “T mean, come on. This is not Vancouver. You don’! expect this here. City hall doesn’t really seem to be aware of the problem.” Realtor Linda Garbara argued the release of more Strala-title condos helps telieve the shortage of homes for sale for Jess than $100,000, Terrace Anti-Poverty Group’s Roseanne Pearce replied that substantial num- bers of people either don’t want to become home owners yet or can’t get financing to do so. "We cannot afford to lose any rental units in Terrace,’’ she said. ‘‘We just cannot afford te do so.” Pearce added that most apartments for rent that ap- pear in the classified ads are gone by the time the ads are published. Dave Hardwick of Dediluke Surveys, acting for the Lovstads, said the units in question are not designed ppyruest Come and see us at 4904 Hwy. 16, Terrace October 19, ‘96 10 a.m. - 2pm. * * Our present customers are inviled to have a free inspection of their systems with ~ $400.00,free labour towards any service or adjustment on any natural gas componants. 100% financing available now! For all new natural gas conversions that kal Vv /E H rT GLE E. F U E EL wes | Natu (26 EE Leak 4904 Hwy 16, * Terrace 635-6617 * Smithers 847-9172 * Kitimat 632-4444 for lower-income earners. ‘We're talking apples and oranges here,’’ he said, “We're not talking about low budget-housing.”’ Hull added the city could best improve the rental market by eliminating slum housing that offers cheap but unsafe competition that deters developers from building new apartments. Hull also asked city ad- ministration to look into the possibility of changing the city policy 454, which recommends a five per cent vacancy rale before strata conversions are approved. “The policy doesn’t seem in tune with today’s teality,”’ he said, Council was expected to approve the planning com- Mittee’s recommendation to proceed with the conversion at last night’s council meet- ing. terested in Orenda for some time and went ahead. with the purchase even though it had larger plans in. the works, wkhakk Although Repap’s various wood licences could be al fected by up to six native - land Veniez claims, spokesman said’ prospective buyers. so far haven’t shied | away because of that. |. “The. know Repap’s reputation in- working with native groups and that it’s excellent,’’ said Veniez. 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